A taste of Wine for comic Eric

Jul 26 2006 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

COMIC great Eric Sykes is ready to sample some Summer Wine.

The 83-year-old star is to join the cast of the world's longest-running comedy TV series.

He will feature in the next series of Last Of The Summer Wine, due to hit TV screens later this year.

Sykes, who has been a British comedy actor since the 1950s, will join the regulars including Peter Sallis, Jean Alexander, Tom Owen and Frank Thornton.

The series is filmed extensively around Holmfirth.

Sykes will play a character called Doggie, who invites the elderly characters in the show to share the delights of his stag night.

Producer Alan J W Bell said: "Eric loved the script and arrived on set with a definite view of how Doggie should be played.

"He was perfect."

Sykes, who was born in Oldham, began his career writing for BBC Radio shows such as Educating Archie and Variety Bandbox.

His first TV appearance came in the 1950s but he is best known for his work with the late Hattie Jacques.

The pair played brother and sister in a series called Sykes And A...., which ran for many years through the 1960s and 1970s.

He has also appeared in films including Heavens Above, Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines and Monte Carlo Or Bust.